Female Saint
Artist/Maker
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 76 x 64 cm h x w x d: Ram 94 x 82 x 8 cm
Inventory numberNM 177
AcqusitionTransferred 1866 from Kongl. Museum
Other titlesTitle (sv): Kvinnligt helgon Title (en): Female Saint Title (en): St Catherine
DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 110: FORMER INV. NOS.: 32 (B. 1830s); KM 1053. TECHNICAL NOTES: The painting support is a thin, plain-weave linen fabric (24 x 22 threads/cm2), lined onto fairly coarse canvas. It is mounted on a strainer. The painting is probably cropped. It was probably lined in Italy before being shipped to Sweden. Impasto parts of the paint layers (brushstrokes) were flattened in the lining process. The ground is red. UV fluorescence reveals some old retouches; some details are reinforced, such as locks of hair, eyes and laces. The varnish is slightly yellowed PROVENANCE: Byström 1852. BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. 12 (as Scarsella); Sander 1872– 76, IV, p. 110, no. 2 (as Scarsella); NM Cat. 1990, 422 (as anonymous, 16th century). In the catalogue of the Byström Collection from the 1830s, the present painting is attributed to Scarsellino. This attribution was changed to “Unknown Italian artist, 17th century” some time during the last century, an attribution which it retained in the 1990 Nationalmuseum catalogue of European paintings.¹ The work is not included in Maria Angela Novelli’s recent catalogue raisonné on Scarsellino. However, in 1995 Carel van Teyl attributed it to Scarsellino and in 2011 Franco Moro confirmed this attribution.² There is a marked Ferrarese presence in the Byström Collection as, apart from an established painting by Scarsellino, it also contains a singular work by Benvenuto Tisi, called il Garofalo (1481–1559).³ Despite the fact that half-length figures of saints are quite rare in Scarsellino’s oeuvre, there seems to be no question as to the accuracy of van Teyl’s and Moro’s attribution. Hallmarks of Scarsellino’s style and technique are present, such as a certain wispiness to the brushstrokes even in the quite thickly applied pastose areas of paint. There is also the marked contrast between the pronounced, warm, rose-tinted red of the saint’s robes, her pale countenance and the murky background, a contrast typically achieved by Scarsella despite his tendency to let the bright colours of the figure and its contours dissipate into the background. Details of the face, such as the somewhat pursed lips and the longish nose, are similar to other depictions of female saints by Scarsellino, like the St Cecilia in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Ferrara, and Mary in the two versions of the Adoration of the Magi in the Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome, and in the Sacred Family in the Galleria Borghese, Rome.⁴ The sensitive manner in which the delicate hands are realized, especially their distinctive gesture and positioning, is also commonly found in Scarsellino’s other paintings of female saints, as indeed it is in the Nationalmuseum’s own St Catherine and the Philosophers (NM 176, cat. no. 85) and in for example The Madonna and Child with St Catherine and in the Sacred family with an Angel, both in the Galleria Nazionale, Parma.⁵ Compared to Scarsella’s oeuvre as a whole, the present work must be considered one of his more typical Ferrarese-style paintings, betraying a strong influence from Dosso Dossi, especially in the distinctly chromatic and sfumato-like delineation of the saint. But because these traits are handled with a self-assurance which Scarsellino could only have attained by familiarizing himself with Dossi’s own Venetian influences, the present painting should be dated to the 1590s; Scarsellino had by this time matured as an artist and established himself anew in Ferrara after his sojourn in Venice, letting the Ferrarese influences take centre stage in a more refined way than before.⁶ dp 1 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1, Catalogue du Cabinet de Martelli (à Rome). 2 NM Archives, Dokumentationsarkivet, Ippolito Scarsella, NM 177. E-mail correspondence with Franco Moro, May 2011. 3 See cat. nos. 102, 111. 4 Novelli 2008, pp. 63, 161, 177, 297, 311–312, 314, cat. nos. 44, 135, 152–153. 5 Ibid., pp. 148, 309,[End]
Motif categoryReligion/Mythology
Collection
TechniquePainting
Object category
Keyword
External links